Is prayer extra-ordinary or ordinary?
If it is seen as only an extra-ordinary power, it is something that could be avoided because we realise how ordinary we are and realise it is a power way beyond us.
If it is seen only as ordinary, we could be in danger of taking it for granted. Prayer needs to be seen as ordinary in the sense that it is "an integral part of the cosmos" - a spiritual "token of exchange" between the unseen world of the spiritual and the seen world in which we live.
George Granger Fleming argues the world is short of prayer, that Heaven cannot empty itself, because there is not enough of this "medium of exchange" between the unseen and seen.
To be a "medium of exchange", Prayer must be both ORDINARY and EXTRA-ORDINARY. It needs to be seen as ordinary in the sense that it should be a natural and integral part of our day to day lives in this seen world, yet extra-ordinary in that it acknowledge the unseen parts of our world and invites the Holy Spirit to enter into the seen world in extra-ordinary ways.
What better example is there to use of this ordinary, yet extra-ordinary nature of prayer, than from the life of the author. Something in the dedication of the book, to his grand-father, John Fleming, is testimony to the power of prayer of an ordinary man.
George Granger Fleming writes:
"To the memory of my grand-father, John Fleming, .... , in the direct inheritance of whose prayers I and mine have the blessedness to be."
These few sentences tell me, that my great-great-great-grandfather, was a man of prayer - a man who prayed for this family. It also shows that the prayers of this ordinary man impacted his grand-children, and now continue to impact his family - five and six generations later. This is extra-ordinary.
Though we may not see all the answers to the ordinary, day to day prayers we pray, let us not stop using this "medium of exchange" to bring extra-ordinary powers into our ordinary experiences of life.
